


two angels around my heart, breathing, breathing for me

by Analinea



Series: Be still, my whumper's heart [9]
Category: Charlie's Angels (2019)
Genre: Breathe in breathe out, Day 11, Elena emotional whump, F/F, Happy Ending, Hurt/Comfort, Oxygen mask, Panic Attacks, Sabina whump, Whumptober 2020, bioweapon, i forgot that was a prompt and realized just now i can use it hah, idk how to tag, inspired by that one criminal minds episode, respiratory issues, you guys i think there's 0 italics in this it has to be a new record for me
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-13
Updated: 2020-10-13
Packaged: 2021-03-08 01:55:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,861
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26987818
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Analinea/pseuds/Analinea
Summary: “Could you…” Sabina hesitates, voice raspier than usual. She closes her eyes to avoid facing what she’s about to ask. “Could you record what I want to say–” she powers through the rising itch in her chest “–so Jane can hear it too?”
Relationships: Elena Houghlin/Jane Kano/Sabina Wilson
Series: Be still, my whumper's heart [9]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1947337
Comments: 9
Kudos: 55
Collections: Whumptober 2020





	two angels around my heart, breathing, breathing for me

**Author's Note:**

> I feel like my best work for whumptober is the Charlie's Angels fics *rubs chin*  
> Anyway  
> I'm pretty sure I had something to say in the notes but I forgot...the criminal minds episode is Amplification yes I know the title I forgot the number, I think it's season 4
> 
> Enjoy!

“Could you…” Sabina hesitates, voice raspier than usual. She closes her eyes to avoid facing what she’s about to ask. “Could you record what I want to say–” she powers through the rising itch in her chest “–so Jane can hear it too?”

Their coms have been cut off by whatever material is lining the walls of this goddamn house, so Sabina presses the phone to her ear harder at the lack of response, wondering if it malfunctioned. 

A second later comes a breathy, “Uh, hey.” A pause. Then, stronger but strained, “Nothing is gonna happen, alright? You’ll talk to her when we all get back.”

Sabina sighs, not out of frustration or annoyance, but at forcing the issue despite the pain she’s causing. “Elen– listen, Lena, I need…” she runs a hand through her hair, noting how it shakes. She blames her loving heart more than the prospect of dying real soon, for the unprecedented fear. “I need you to hear it. Just in case. Both of you. Please.”

Jane is halfway across the world on a mission they know nothing about. Except for the risks. They have said goodbye accordingly, three days ago; they didn’t beg her not to go, but each touch had been underlined with finality. 

Sabina never considered she’d be the one in this position right now, yearning for closure. If she dies...If she dies because they don’t find the antidote in time, and a recording of her last words are all Elena and Jane have left of her–

The idea appeases her, but she’s too selfish to dig into the question of whether this will help or hurt them more. She doesn’t have time, either. 

“Alright.” Elena sniffs once. “Alright, wait a sec–” a series of bip before she comes back “– go on.”

Sabina takes a deep breath that puts millions of fluttering wings into a frenzy inside of her lungs, tickling in a bad way. She coughs once. 

What she wants to express is written down on her very bones, but she never thought it into full sentences before. It’s a strange feeling, foreign words for familiar feelings. “I have...been going through life thinking that,” she looks up at the blank ceiling, “no relationship could ever be genuine, or last forever. That was movie bullshit, as far as I was concerned.” That’s the easy part.

“But then–” she halts; the vice tightening around her chest if part nerves and part next stage of dying. No clearing of her throat can get rid of the imaginary sand lining it; she loses a whole minute trying to will the discomfort away. 

“Sabina…,” a whisper that might be a trick of the wind outside. 

“Then,” she chokes out, the dam of her eyelids slamming shut against the tears, “I met you and Jane.” She breathes in, barrels through, “And I’ve spent the last year and a half living a dream where not one, but two amazing women loved me back.”

There’s a sob on the other end of the line that finds an echo deep in Sabina’s stomach; she doesn’t let it out. She opens her mouth to say more, one last thing, the most important–

Two people in hazmat suits get inside the room, supposed to help her find her survival though she can’t help resenting that they didn’t let Elena be the one to do so. 

“Gotta go.” She hangs up. 

Elena lets her hand drop to her side, head coming to rest on the wall she’s leaning on. She’s in a cold corridor; they brought her here after doing a preventive decontamination. She’s not in her own clothes. She’s alone, cheeks glittering with the salt of her dried tears. 

She doesn’t know what to do. 

Her mind has always been a beehive but now its inhabitants are...silent. Her head is filled with Sabina, rushing back to close the patio window between them. “Don’t come in!”

Elena had turned to ice, eyes wide, one hand on the unyielding glass separating them. She knew what that meant. She spotted the broken vial inside, powder spilling out. 

They should have been together. If Elena hadn’t lagged behind for whatever stupid reason she doesn’t even remember, she would have stepped inside right next to Sabina. 

Here she stands instead, in the crude lights. Powerless as the day she tried to convince her boss not to go through with the Calypso sale yet. 

All of it had been bad: the cafe shooting, almost drowning, running, risking everything– but it had been so good. Elena, forever erring through life believing she would never be satisfied by anything. Finding something she wished to never let go of. 

Is it wrong, that right where she fits lay the bodies of men she killed?

Did someone that cared about them waited in an empty corridor for their return, too, folding in half around the hand ripping their guts out?

The sob tears out of her on a cry so guttural she doubts it comes from herself. No, it has to be the beast clawing at the inside of her chest to evade the pain. Its size crushes her lungs, keeping her from taking a full breath. One gasp comes back out as a whine. She straightens up, extends her throat for mercy; it doesn’t come.

Elena blinks. The world is farther away than it was a second before. Panting, she groggily looks around: her feet are in front of her instead of under her. So she’s sitting down, then. There’s no one on either side of her. She wishes for Jane’s warmth, as the sobs take all her oxygen away again. She wants Jane to go save Sabina, because Elena sure as hell is useless. She can only curl up and bury her head in her hands while Sabina dies. 

She’ll stay alive for days or weeks into Jane’s mind, while being already gone in this timezone. Jane should stay where she is, so she never has to know. Because Sabina is dying. And judging by the silent crumble of the world around Elena, leaving her floating in an endless dark pit, she’ll follow soon. 

Sabina clutches at her chest as she watches the blurry yellow hazmats work. They’re slow and dumb and she’s growing irritated; Elena would have been a hundred times more efficient. And she needs her so much right now.

Her lungs have turned to uncooperating rocks, blood sipping through the cracks to spill over. So far, she’s managed to swallow down every drop of it she’s couched up, building up the nausea in her stomach. 

Her fingers twitch longingly towards the phone sitting right next to them; Elena is right there on the other side. But Sabina isn’t sure she could talk without choking anymore, so she tries to stay still enough for fate to forget about her.

One of her knees bends dangerously under her, but she catches herself on the table and stays up. Her arms barely support her either, but if she sits down she admits defeat. She locks her knee back in place. She’s not dying yet. 

She counts each raspy, wet intake of air, keeps them slow and deliberate. She’s at seventy.

“Are you alright, miss?” one of the hazmats get close enough to come into focus, throwing off Sabina’s count. She grits her teeth. 

“Yeah, why d’you ask?” 

Figures her last bloody words would be sarcastic. 

Violent coughs send aftershocks all the way down to her feet, forcing her eyes closed. She’s been tasting blood for so long it doesn’t register anymore as mouthfuls of it spill between her lips. There’s no space left to take a breath, taking the floor from under her; fuck standing then. 

The eye of the storm lasts one second, the universe coming to a standstill around her.

Then she wheezes in wet air; her muscles seize from the force with which she hacks what feels like half her right lung. 

She throws up blood. She drowns. 

The red water close over her head, so thick she can’t swim up so she lets herself be pulled down until it’s dark. Until she feels nothing anymore.

“Breathe.” Jane says from inside of her chest; a fine advice, but Sabina doesn’t need it. She’s been managing just fine since birth, thank you.

“I’m tryin–” a forceful gasp, a sob. So, Jane was talking to Elena. Sabina frowns. 

“Follow me, alright? Four in…” a pause that doesn’t last that long, “hold,” again, “four out.” What are they doing? What does Elena need to be coached through breathing? She’s too smart for that. 

Sabina is too weary to figure it out. She checks out. 

“–safe. She’s safe. I’m safe. We’re all together, and I promise we won’t ever break apart again, okay?”

They’re safe. The corner of Sabina’s lips twitches in a tired smile. She wants to be there, too. Her eyelashes are stuck together, but enough fluttering allows her to peer at the scene next to her: Jane, smaller than she should look, wrapped around a shaky Elena. They’re...safe? So why do they look so hurt?

Sabina wants to call out to them, tries to wet her lips but finds her mouth too dry. Something sits uncomfortably on her face. She takes a deep breath– except her chest is jammed like a rusty engine. 

The bioweapon. She’s dying, right? 

It punches the air out of her, making it impossible to catch it back. The sudden beeping alerts Jane and Elena– they jump to their feet, a four armed cryptid at the edge of Sabina’s vision, waving frantically around in a way that could have been funny if only she was in the mood.

“Sabina?” is thrown around multiple times before a nurse comes in and –bless her– does something that sends calm flowing through Sabina’s veins. The girls quiet down. 

In three blinks that might last more than she thinks, everything settles down. She’s ready to drift away again, but she fights just a little longer. She has to see Jane and Elena properly, to take them with her in sleep. 

“Hey, love,” Jane says, carding her fingers through Sabina’s hair. It feels so good. “We’re here. You’re gonna be alright.”

Sabina focuses really hard to bring one arm to the mask on her face; Elena catches it before she can mess with the thing. Keeps Sabina’s hand in hers. “Hey,” her voice is rough, eyes red. Sabina wants to tell her it’s okay. It’s going to be okay. She remembers, now, in flashes of light. They did find the antidote. “I know,” Elena adds, “breathe.” 

Kettle, pot, Sabina thinks, pointing a hand between herself and Elena. She’ll need to have a talk with her later about the desperation painted on every inch of her skin. Elena seems to get the idea. It makes her laugh through the remnant of her tears. That’s good. 

“Sleep,” Jane bends down, kissing the top of her head. Sabina closes her eyes. “We love you,” she hears being whispered, a secret for her dreams, “we’re proud to be loved by you, too.”

“Breathe,” far away, maybe only the wind. 

She does. 

**Author's Note:**

> I'm on [there](https://kinsbournescream.tumblr.com/tagged/ana-writes-sometimes)


End file.
